This invention relates to apparatus and procedure for applying adhesive labels to articles arranged in rows. In an important specific aspect, to which detailed reference will be made herein for purposes of illustration, the invention is particularly concerned with the application of tax stamps to cigarette packages contained in cartons.
Many U.S. states require that state tax stamps be applied to all cigarette packages sold within their borders. In present-day commercial practice, cigarette packages as supplied by manufacturers to distributors lack tax stamps and are enclosed in cartons each typically holding ten packages arranged in two parallel rows. The distributors must accordingly open every carton and apply tax stamps to all the contained packages.
Various types of more or less automated equipment have heretofore been proposed and used for performing this operation. Commonly, in such apparatus, successive cartons are fed lengthwise past a plow which opens their side flaps to expose the ends of the cigarette packages, then advanced to a station at which tax stamps are applied to the exposed package ends, and finally transported past devices for gluing and reclosing the carton flaps. The stamps may be inked impressions directly imprinted on the package ends, or transfer labels (decalcomanias), e.g. supplied in sheets. Use of paper labels affords potential benefits, however, especially from the standpoint of security, because paper labels can bear a complex intaglio imprint which is difficult to counterfeit.
Heretofore, the application of tax stamps in the form of labels to cigarette packages (i.e. using known types of equipment) has been attended with various disadvantages. In particular, it has generally been necessary to bring each carton to a full halt while the labels are applied, with the result that the rate of production (number of cartons stamped per unit time) has been undesirably slow and inefficient. The labelhandling portions of the equipment have often been inconveniently complex in structure and operation. It has frequently been difficult or impossible to adjust the apparatus for use with cigarette packages of different heights. In addition, the known machines have sometimes been susceptible to jamming or other malfunctions causing misapplication or nonapplication of stamps or damage to the cigarette cartons.